Chapter 13 #2
Callie stared up at him, knowing she had won this battle, and something inside told her it was an important victory.
She shivered as he left her only long enough to remove his breeches.
He returned hurriedly and gathered her into his arms where he kissed her so furiously that it took her breath. This wasn’t the same tender lover who had been so slow and easy with her before. He was like a beast possessed. One who couldn’t get enough of her taste.
He trailed his hands over her body, making her shiver at how strong they were and yet so gentle. His hands had the power to destroy life, but with her they only gave pleasure.
Callie moaned as he dipped his head down and took her breast into his mouth. His tongue gently lapped at her hardened nipple, sending waves of ecstasy through her. She cupped his head to her, holding him close as her body burned for him.
“I love the way you taste,” he breathed, running his tongue from her breast to her neck. “So warm and soft.”
She trembled at his words, knowing he’d only said them to her. How she wished she knew of some magic to keep him with her, to make sure he never left her side again.
He kissed his way from her neck to her ear. She shuddered as he ran his tongue over the curve of it, then darted his tongue inside.
“I love the way you touch me,” she whispered. “The way you feel on top of me. And I wish I could keep you here like this forever.”
Sin pulled back as her words pierced his heart. How cruel that they should want the same thing while fate conspired against them. He needed this woman in a way that made no sense.
He stared down at her face that was framed by her curls. He’d never thought to see such heartfelt welcome on a woman’s face. With her, he was home and he trembled from the weight of his tangled emotions. The need to hold her, protect her and the need to run away from the fear inside him.
How could he hurt her? Ever?
She reached up and laid her tender hand against his unshaven cheek. That touch scorched him and turned him inside out. There would never be another person in his life who would mean as much to him as she did in this moment.
Needing her in a way that shook him to his soul, he slid himself inside the warm heaven of her body.
Callie moaned at the feel of his deep inside her. The feel of his strength as he rocked himself between her thighs. He captured her lips with his and kissed her passionately, his tongue matching every stroke of his body.
She ran her hands over the hard planes of his back and felt his muscles rippling in time to his movements.
Suddenly, he thrust himself deep inside, then stopped. He pulled back and braced himself on his arms so that he could look down at her. She laid her hands against his taut biceps and watched him watch her.
There was such a needful, hungry look in his eyes that it made her ache.
Slowly, he ran his gaze from her face, then down to her bare breasts and stomach, all the way to where they were joined. “You are beautiful,” he said, his voice ragged.
She smiled as he dipped his head to kiss her again while he still held himself above her.
Sin closed his eyes and inhaled her sweet scent. Oh the sexual things he wanted to do with and to this woman.
“Is something wrong?” she asked innocently.
“How could anything be wrong while I have you in my arms?”
Callie didn’t know which of them was most surprised by that confession. Love flooded her heart for him. Smiling up at him, she wrapped her legs around his lean waist and brought him into her ever deeper than before.
She kissed his lips as she used her body to give him pleasure. He shivered in her arms until he growled. His eyes hot, he lowered himself on top of her and took over the rhythm of their passion.
Callie kissed him furiously as she buried her hands in his hair and moaned at how delicious he felt on and inside her. She loved feeling him like this. Knowing he was all hers.
He made love to her fast, driving her up to a height she’d never felt before and just when she was sure she could rise no higher, he pushed her up and beyond. To a level of pleasure so fierce it made her cry out.
She held him close as she felt him shuddering in her arms. He pulled back to stare down at her.
She smiled up at him. “See how much fun you’ve already had on Fun Day, my lord?” She wrinkled her nose at him impishly. “And to think we have yet to leave our room.”
Sin laughed at her humor. “It does make me wonder how milady could ever improve this day.”
“Oh, give me time and you will see.”
Sin was fool enough to doubt that.
Once they were washed and dressed, she led him downstairs to break the fast. Lochlan, Braden and Simon were up and eating at the long table, but Ewan was still in his bed, no doubt sleeping off the keg of ale they had split the night before.
The great hall was empty, and the early morning light spilled in from the windows high above their heads. His brothers and Simon were passing good-natured insults and taunts as they joined them.
Callie sat him at the table, then hurried off to find food for them.
“She’s in a most cheerful mood this morn, isn’t she?” Lochlan asked.
Sin grunted as he grabbed the heel of Lochlan’s bread and tore a piece from it. “She’s interminably pleasant.”
“She wasn’t last night.” Lochlan reached for his cup.
Sin frowned at the odd note in his brother’s voice. “What say you?”
Lochlan inclined his head toward where Callie had vanished. “When I left her last night, she looked as if she were about to cry.”
“Over what?”
“You.”
“Me?” he asked, baffled by Lochlan’s words. “I did nothing to her.” At least not yet. It was what was to come that made him want to throw himself from the top of her castle.
Until that inevitable day came that would divide them forever, the last thing he wanted was to cause her hurt.
“Aye,” Lochlan agreed, “It’s the not doing anything to her that was the problem. It seems she was upset because you barely notice her at all.”
That was wholly untrue. Sin noticed everything about her and therein was the crux of his problem. He didn’t even want to contemplate a future without her. “You know better than that.”
“It matters not what I know. Only what she perceives.”
Braden clucked his tongue as he joined their conversation. “And after all that advice you gave me about Maggie. For shame, Sin. I thought you were a man of action and not one of talk.”
“Braden,” Simon interrupted, “I think you might be forgetting one small detail. Sin is here to find one of Callie’s kinsmen for Henry. How do you think your Maggie would have felt had you been an outsider and done that to her?”
Lochlan stiffened as he turned back to Sin. “You wouldn’t really do that.”
Sin sighed. “I am honor bound to it.”
“Sin,” Lochlan said, his voice thick with warning, “you know the code of conduct that runs thick through everyone with a drop of Scot’s blood. You don’t betray your kin, and most especially not into the hands of an enemy.”
Sin arched a brow at his words and watched as color darkened Lochlan’s cheeks. Interesting that his brother would expect better behavior from him than their father had shown.
“That was different,” Lochlan said, knowing Sin’s thoughts. “It was wartime and that was the only way to cease hostilities.”
“And if I don’t stop the rebels, it will be wartime again. Henry is out of patience.”
“Then for your sake, I hope the rebel leader is someone in this clan your wife isn’t overly fond of.”
Sin stared at the table as his stomach knotted. In his gut, he already knew the culprit even though his heart argued repeatedly that it must be someone else. Anyone else.
But it was Dermot MacNeely as sure as he sat at the table listening to his brothers. His wife would curse and hate him forever when she found out. But there was nothing to be done about it. It was what must be done.
“Well, I never...” Callie’s voice broke off.
They looked up as Callie came into the room bearing a tray of fresh baked bread and sliced cheese.
“When I left, the four of you looked fine and here I come back and it’s as if the Second Coming were upon us. Should I ask what tragedy has darkened the mood of this hall?”
“‘Twas only the absence of your beauty.” Braden grinned. “We dwell in absolute darkness without it.”
Sin snorted and tossed his piece of bread at Braden. “You’d best counsel your tongue, little brother, else I will counsel it for you.”
Lochlan smiled. “Better still, let me tell Maggie and she’ll have his ears boxed.”
Braden feigned indignance. “I try and smooth over the matter with your lady and this is the payment I receive? Very well, you’re on your own with the matter. See if I help you again.”
Sin watched as his wife approached. More beautiful than the very angels in heaven, she eyed him with a determined stare. “Remember your promise to me, Sin. Only smiles are allowed today.”
He gave her a fake smile that showed his teeth.
She rolled her eyes. “‘Tis better than a frown anyway.”
Callie turned to face Simon and motioned for him to follow her. “My lord, Simon, might I have a word with you in private?”
Sin arched a brow. “Why would you wish that?”
She reached across the table and touched the tip of his nose. “I merely wish to ask him a question away from your hearing.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t wish you to hear it.”
“Aye,” Lochlan interjected, “what are you, Sin? Daft?”
Sin kicked the leg of Lochlan’s chair. He narrowed a hostile glare. “One day, brother, I hope to see a woman plot your downfall. Then I shall be the one laughing at you.”
“Downfall?” Callie asked. “How ominous you make it sound. There is no downfall being plotted. Merely a question being passed.”
Sin looked at her drolly. “Aye, and empires have been splintered apart over the mere utterance of a single word.”
“But it’s not an empire I wish to splinter. It’s the ice encasing your heart.”
Silence rang in the hall on the heel of those words. Sin sat in stunned disbelief.